Palworld is coming to mobile phones courtesy of PUBG maker, despite that Nintendo lawsuit

Krafton, the South Korean company behind PUBG Battlegrounds, is going to bring Palworld to mobile phones.

2

Palworld is firmly in the sights of Nintendo's lawyers these days (Image Credit: Pocketpair)

In a press release announcing the partnership with Pocketpair, the firm told us:

"Through this contract, Krafton will expand the Palworld IP to the mobile platform. It plans to faithfully reinterpret and implement the original's main fun elements to fit the mobile environment. The project will be handled by the development team of 'PUBG STUDIOS,' a creative studio under Krafton."

That's the sum total of the information we have thus far, though.

It's not surprising that Pocketpair would seek to further leverage the success of Palword, which was an instant smash when it emerged on PC back at the start of 2024.

The game sold over four million in its first weekend, and came close to Dota 2's record for concurrent players on Steam - which caught everyone by surprise, the developer included.

Unfortunately for Pocketpair, the high-profile success of the game, which is informally known as 'Pokemon with guns' among the gaming community, attracted the attention of Nintendo.

In recent times, we've seen Nintendo suing Pocketpair for alleged 'patent infringement' although the details are very murky, even for the creator of Palworld which recently issued a statement saying as much.

How this will pan out remains to be seen, but it's an odd affair that seems to only be getting stranger. Indeed, the timing of the announcement of this mobile effort feels like something of a shot back at Nintendo, in some ways.

Palworld on mobile could be a potentially bigger money-spinner than the PC version, assuming Nintendo isn't successful in its efforts to spoil the party.